After a long hot day of uphill we collapsed on this island, each of us to his own little idyllic corner. Suddenly I heard a shout, “Bear! Comin’ at you!” We scrambled to our feet and sure enough a black bear topped a little hummock, running from the direction of the shout. It was looking a little stressed as it found itself in the center of a triangle of shouting humans. But we quieted down and quickly got the bear spray ready. It sauntered past me with a good 15 feet to spare, went into the shrubs on the hillside and started eating blueberries. Sean came down and said, “I was asleep, dreaming, and woke up with the bear’s face a foot above me!” Yikes! “What'd you do?” “Jumped up and started yelling!” When we tell this story to our Alaskan friends they inevitably bring up the story about their friend’s friend who woke up with a bear licking their face. They jumped up, too, and survived. Seems to be the standard, involuntary reaction... Photographer: Bill Eichenlaub